head to head · open source
Mermaid vs plotly.js
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. plotly.js has 18,378 stars, 2,074 forks, 769 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 395% (90,981 vs 18,378 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; plotly.js is written in JavaScript under MIT. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, plotly.js 11%. Mermaid was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Mermaid | plotly.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mermaid if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick plotly.js if
- You want the plotly.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and plotly.js fits your workflow better
About Mermaid
Mermaid Generate diagrams from Markdown like text. Live Editor! 📖 Documentation 🚀 Getting Started 🌐 CDN 🙌 Join Us 简体中文 Try Live Editor previews of future releases: Develop Next :trophy: Mermaid was nominated and won the JS Open Source Awards (2019) in the category "The most exciting use of technology"!!! Thanks to all involved, people committing pull requests, people answering questions! 🙏 Table of content Expand contents About Examples Release Related projects Contributors Security and safe diagrams Reporting vulnerabilities Appreciation About Mermaid is a JavaScript based diagramming and charting tool…
read the full Mermaid overview →
About plotly.js
Plotly.js is a standalone JavaScript data visualization library, and it also powers the Python and R modules named plotly in those respective ecosystems (referred to as Plotly.py and Plotly.R). Plotly.js can be used to produce dozens of chart types and visualizations, including statistical charts, 3D graphs, scientific charts, SVG and tile maps, financial charts and more. Contact us for Plotly.js consulting, dashboard development, application integration, and feature additions. Table of contents Load as a node module Load via script tag Bundles Alternative ways to load and build plotly.js Documentation Bugs and…
read the full plotly.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or plotly.js more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and plotly.js has 18,378. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and plotly.js free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and plotly.js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and plotly.js?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and plotly.js in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Mermaid or plotly.js?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose plotly.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.